It is two-hundred years since the first Thread fell on Pern. Old Earth technology is failing or has already failed. Old attitudes are going away except for some die-hard traditionalists. This story follows a number of people who are getting ready for Thread to fall.

We get the story of a young woman named Debera who was Searched but whose father didn't tell her that she had a chance to Impress a dragon because he had made other more advantageous (to him) plans for her future. When she finds the letter, she runs away from home followed by her father, the man he made the deal with, and her potential mate. She gets to the hatching ground in time to Impress the green Dragon Morath.

We get the story of an artist whose first commission is to paints miniatures of the young children of the Lord Holder of Bitra. Iantine learns just how badly a Hold can be run as he meets Lord Holder Chalkin who doesn't believe that Thread is really going to fall.

We see that various Lord Holders and Weyr Leaders as they meet to decide what to do about Lord Chalkin and get to know the personalities of the first group to fight Thread without old Earth technology but with dragons.

We meet the teachers who are tasked with finding a way to continue teaching their necessary curriculum now that the final computers have died. We see the development of the Teaching Songs and Ballads.

This was an excellent story that sets up the Pern that readers see in the books that take place in times long past this second Thread fall. The characters were engaging and the plot was fast moving. ( )

Umpteenth re-read. Noticed this time round that they seem to leap fairly quickly to some pretty full-on corporal punishment (castration for rape) that surely the original settlers would have been too liberal for??! I think AMcC is possibly being a little hasty in her indication of the transition from an sf society (in Dragonsdawn) to a quasi-mediaeval society (the 'Present Pass' books).

This book is most respectfully dedicated to Dieter Clissmann, who sorts out my various computers and never fails to answer my pleas for HELP!

First words

DRAGONS IN SQUADRONS WOVE, and interwove, sky trails, diving and climbing in wings, each precisely separated by the minimum safety distance so that occasionally the watchers thought they saw an uninterrupted line of dragons as the close order drill continued.

Wikipedia in English (2)

It's been two hundred years since the deadly Thread fell like rain upon Pern, devouring everything in its path. No one alive remembers that first horrific onslaught and no one believes in its return - except for the dragonriders. For two centuries they have been practicing and training, passing down from generation to generation the formidable Thread-fighting techniques.

Now the ominous signs are appearing:the violent winter storms and volcanic eruptions that are said to herald the approach of the Red Star and its lethal spawn.But one stubborn Lord Holder, Chalkan of Bitra, refuses to believe - and that disbelief could spell disaster. So as the dragonriders desperately train to face a terrifying enemy, they and the other Lord Holders must find a way to deal with Chalkin - before history repeats itself and unleashes its virulence on all of Pern ...

When the volcanoes rumble and the powerful storms begin brewing on Pern, it means one thing: Thread. For 257 years Pern has been free of the life-destroying Thread, but now the Red Star has reappeared in the sky and soon the deadly Threadfall will follow. In the holds and weyrs across the land, the genetically-engineered dragons of Pern and their human riders begin feverishly training to combat the Thread, for only dragon fire can destroy the silvery invaders. But, incredibly, one Lord Holder refuses to believe the Thread will fall again, and he may endanger the entire planet.

Thread: deadly silver strands that fall from the sky like rain, devouring every organic thing in their path - animals, plants, and people alike. Who would believe that such a horrible thing could exist? After all, it's been two hundred years since Thread supposedly fell on Pern. No one alive remembers that first onslaught. There's no sign of it anywhere in the world. Only the dragons, originally created to be a weapon against Thread, are still around to remind people that once before their population was decimated, their hopes and dreams and livelihood almost destroyed forever. For two centuries the dragonriders have been practicing and training, passing down from generation to generation the Threadfighting techniques learned on the fly by their besieged ancestors. And most of the Lord Holders are prepared to protect their people, to provide sanctuary, to assemble groundcrews to search out and destroy any Thread that might be missed by the dragons soaring overhead. All but one.… (more)